There is the usual temple facing an enormous tank
and various shrines. Both European and native
quarters offer many picturesque subjects to brush and
pencil.
Hence to Belur is up hill all the way, often through
very fine forests, and two rivers to cross, which prevented
our averaging more than a mile and a half per
hour during the whole of that n ig h t; and, moreover,
just as we had got half across the second river—the
Yagache, which after many windings becomes the
Hemavati, and eventually flows into the Kaveri—fortunately
not far from my destination, the cart stuck
fast, the wheels had locked, and nothing would move
us an inch. On sending to the village, the kotwala, or
headman, at once collected half a-dozen men, and came
down with torches. Great big fellows they were, of a
splendid physique. I well remember one of them pulling
me out by the legs, and carrying me bodily to the
dry shore, whence I had to tramp off by torchlight to
the rest-house, a cart following with the baggage,
which George suspiciously watched, for he evidently
did not trust those swarthy fellows. However, all
went smoothly, and I found the kotwala very useful.
He afterwards accompanied me to a somewhat famous
temple, dedicated to Vishnu, and in tolerable repair.
I t is surrounded by four or five smaller ones and several
subordinate buildings, all enclosed within the high wall
of a court, about 400 feet long, and possessed of two
fine gopuras or pagoda shaped gateways. The large
temple, the porch, and the pillars are substantially
built, but all the other halls and compartments have
little to boast of. Some of the stone carvings are very
beautiful, especially the windows and pierced slabs of
the porch, twenty-eight in number, each of a different
pattern ; also the base of the Vimana is elaborately
sculptured. The middle of the twelfth century is the
period assigned to its erection, although it was only
finished two centuries later, after the Mohamedan invasion
of the Deccan in 1310. Unfortunately, repeated
coats of whitewash have in modern times considerably
marred the beautiful effect of its details.
About ten miles from Belur, in a north-easterly
direction, is Halabid, the old capital of the Rajput
Ballala Rajahs of Mysore, which was destroyed during
the Mohamedan conquest, hence the unfinished state of
its magnificent temple, of which Sir George Birdwood
says, “ had it been completed it would have been the
noblest example of the Chalukyan style, which is also
th a t of the Belur edifice. This temple of Halabid, dedicated
to Seva, is raised five or six feet on a terrace ;